Several types of scanning apparatus for scanning negative still and motion picture films are known and currently used by photographic labs. Eastman Kodak Company now offers a PIW 2200 system which uses a Kodak 2000 scanner having a flat gate for handling film strips and slides to digitize an excellent high resolution image for storage on a compact disc. This scanner cannot handle continuous rolls of film as would be desirable for large numbers of orders. Another type of scanner uses a drum for scanning motion picture film. Other types of drum scanners are known for scanning continuous rolls of film or single negative, although no drum scanner does both. In addition, screw-driven flat bed scanners are known. All of the known scanners have, however, limitations in terms of their versatility in that they are not capable of providing a high resolution scan while, at the same time, avoiding the need for interchangeability for handling first order and reorders for photographic processing labs.
It has been found that the method for clamping the film relative to the gate in the conventional apparatus does not provide a true flattening of the film to obtain a better image so that scanning can take place with the greatest accuracy and resolution. In one known clamping systems used in a conventional flat-gate scanning apparatus of the aforementioned type, two berrylium copper spring arms are actuated by a solenoid to clamp the film against a flat gate through which scanning takes place. The spring fingers of the spring arms attempt to spread and stretch the film flat, but this arrangement does not obtain as flat a film as desired, particularly since the clamping takes place only on the sprockets. This clamping system does not, therefore, result in the maximum film control needed to obtain as flat a plane as possible. Consequently, the known clamping arrangement is insufficient to provide a constant location for scanning and does not adequately take into account tolerance variations.
Whereas it was generally known in the photographic film art that a curve could be used to maintain a desired flatness in films, it was not known prior to the present invention that curved gate could be used to maintain flatness in the film and also to handle several film transport formats for a scanning operation. The clamping of the edges of individual strips around the entire periphery prevent the edges from flattening out so as to distort the film and degrade the image to be digitized. In other words, the present invention allows reels of film to be used with or without laminate and the radial gate makes the film flatter for achieving a better image while avoiding stretching the film which would otherwise straighten across the arcuate aperture. This arrangement thus provides a constant scanning location for precise digitizing of the image within the capability of the digitizing equipment itself.